Opinion: Takes on the past weekend’s three biggest stories

By Mike Russell | March 26, 2018 at 3:23 pmUPDATED: March 26, 2018 at 7:40 pm

Zachary Chakin holds up a sign as crowds of people participate in the March for Our Lives rally in support of gun control, Saturday, March 24, 2018, in San Francisco. In a historic groundswell of youth activism, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. against gun violence Saturday, vowing to transform fear and grief into a "vote-them-out" movement and tougher laws against weapons and ammo. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson)

The first weekend of spring has sprung three huge news stories on us. Here’s my take on this weekend’s big news hat trick:

March for Our Lives

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world attend one of the few hundred March for Our Lives rallies this weekend.

First of all, good for them and good for the organizers. The event in Washington, D.C. was huge and the satellite marches scored great turnouts as well.

But unfortunately, I have to be the bad guy here.

It’s not politically correct to speak against what these kids and their millionaire backers are aiming at. It’s a good thing that I’m not politically correct. I’m the one that has to point out why this will have little, if no, impact.

First up, the face of the movement, David Hogg. This foul-mouthed high schooler took to YouTube(WARNING: LINK CONTAINS FOUL LANGUAGE) earlier this month to unload on the National Rifle Associations, politicians, and even Second Amendment supporters.

Notable quotes included:

“The pathetic [expletive] that want to keep killing our children, they could have blood from children splattered all over their faces and they wouldn’t take action because they all still see those dollar signs.”

“At this point it’s like when your old-[expletive] parent is like, ‘I don’t know how to send an iMessage’ and you’re like, ‘OK, give me the [expletive] phone’ and you take it and you get it done in one second. Sadly, that’s what we have to do with our government because our parents don’t know how to use a [expletive] democracy so we have to do it.”

And as far as offering up solutions, Hogg stated, “I shouldn’t have to! I’m 17.”

Calling names and using excessive profanity will get him nowhere and only hurt his movement. His current backers will be his only backers. Those that wanted to hear what he had to say were probably lost at the first f-bomb.

The celebrities funding the movement need to step up as the faces of the movement. Hogg is only hurting it.

The march took direct aim at our elected officials. This is where the real roadblock is. No, not because of gridlock or partisan bickering. It’s because of a political game that they know how to play all too well — the game that allows congress to have a 13 percent approval rating and a 90-plus percent incumbent reelection rate.

The safe money is on gun control legislation being passed. That’s where the game is played. They will ban bump stocks (which won’t stop mass shootings) and most likely raise the minimum age to buy a long gun to 21 (which won’t stop mass shootings).

The #neveragain and March for Our Lives movements will claim victory and celebrate the politicians that voted for it. Those politicians, knowing that the legislation will not protect our kids, will run on that platform for reelection. Those that voted against the legislation will rally behind the Second Amendment and ride that wave to reelection.

Just appease the loudest of the masses and retain your position of power. It’s the D.C. way.

Stormy Daniels

Porn star Stormy Daniels sat down with Anderson Cooper Sunday night to detail her affair with President Donald Trump, an affair that happened 12 years ago. She admitted, in the interview, that she was sleeping with the future president for a spot on “The Apprentice.”

Apparently, the Mueller investigation isn’t turning out enough sensational headlines these days as the story of a porn star sleeping with a billionaire and subsequently taking hush money is dominating the news cycle.

Here we have a porn star that wants to become a mainstream celebrity. She attempted to sleep her way onto a national television show with a billionaire that thinks he is untouchable and at the top of his game. She doesn’t get the gig, threatens him and he pays her off. Oh, the scandal! Surely this has NEVER happened before.

Now the billionaire sits in the White House and that $130,000 payoff (such an odd number) seems a bit light.

By the way, she’s not the only one looking to cash in: The attorney that allegedly made the payoff is securing a book deal.

In the interview, Daniels went into very gross detail about the affair. I won’t get into that stuff because it’s even more laughable than the media freak out over the decade-plus old incident. What she did outline was an event where she alleged a man approached her in a parking lot and threatened her to drop the whole Trump story.

Again, waiting to see where this is shocking.

What’s not being discussed is that this has revitalized her career in the adult film business. Daniels has signed a deal with not one, but two, online porn houses.

Please keep in mind that the left is propping up a woman that actually ran for the Senate in Louisiana under the campaign slogan, “Stormy Daniels, Screwing People Honestly.”

I think we can just leave it at that.

Facebook

The social freak out over Facebook’s data collection and mining practices took an odd turn over the weekend.

The social media giant took to global newspaper ads, of all things, to expand their apology tour for allowing endless amounts of personal data to be used by our past two presidents and their campaign efforts.

The bottom line here is that it’s all for show.

COO Sheryl Sanberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are putting on their sad faces and pining to the crowds at this point. Hundreds of millions of people are hooked on their service and they know it.

The biggest shock to Facebook users seems to be that Facebook has so much information on each of us.

Why? Tell me, did you read the entire user agreement before you clicked, “I have read and accept the terms of the user agreement?” Me neither.

The user agreement explains, in legalese, that we as users of the free service are the products that they sell to advertisers. Yes, we are Facebook’s product. They need to collect detailed information on their products (us) to effectively sell to advertisers.

You can download all of the information that Facebook has on you. It’s a link that is in the “Settings” tab under “General.”

I did that Monday morning. I looked through the pages and pages of personal information that Facebook has of mine.

It’s exactly what I expected. It’s exactly what I as an advertiser on Facebook would want to know. Nothing like banking information or mother’s maiden name was included.

They have access to my browser history (this is done with cookies) and they know what apps are on my phone (most likely from signing in with Facebook).

This is all accessible information to me if I want to boost a post. It is also available to campaigns that pay to target their advertising.

I didn’t see metadata on my calls or texts. That might be exclusive to Andriod users. Would I be surprised if I had? Nope.

Because, once again, I signed up for a free service (that uses me as product) without reading the entire user agreement.